Dead of Winter by Kresley Cole

wolves is protecting me. Long story. He won’t hurt you.”
    Jack looked even more confused.
    To distract him, I said, “Hey, when you get back on your feet, you can show me all around this place. Not many guys have their own forts.”
    â€œYou can’t leave from here.” His muscles tensed, making him wince. “Promise me you woan leave.”
    I had nowhere to go. No home whatsoever. I wanted one though. Fresh from viewing Haven’s ruins, I felt the agonizing lack. “I won’t leave.”
    As if that one burst of energy had sapped his remaining strength, his lids grew heavy. “I know . . . what they did . . . to Clotile.”
    Curiosity preyed on me. “What, Jack? And what did they do to you?”
    He seemed to struggle against sleep with everything in him—“Doan want to take my eyes off you”—but he lost in the end.
    Selena had entered the tent and heard the last. I couldn’t read her reaction. Despite Jack’s words, something could’ve happened between him and Selena. I might be the interloper here.
    She set Jack’s trusty crossbow on his desk. Since I’d last seen it, he’d modified the weapon, adding a flashlight and painting the auto-loading arrow cartridge.
    â€œHas Joules calmed down yet?” I asked her. “Did he find the culprit?”
    â€œThe Tower’s latest farfetched theory? Nanoseconds before his lightning hit, the Priestess somehow swooped in and ‘insta-drowned’ the twins, shoving water into their lungs. He’s furious and plans to go ‘spearfishing’ for her.” Selena frowned. “I wonder if she can be electrocuted.” We could hope. “Matthew’s outside, said he needs to talk to you.”
    â€œWill you stay?”
    â€œDuh.”
    Though exhausted, I forced myself to stand, then shrugged into my poncho. Maybe Matthew would reveal what Jack had been through. Clotile . . .
    Or how about a rundown of my history with the Lovers?
    While I was out, I’d make some fruit for Tess. Nothing said “sorry I became a witch from nightmares and almost killed you” like a gift basket of fruit.
    I stepped out into the biting air and drizzle. Cyclops loped beside me, barking a couple of times, as if to tell me something. Slaver’s got Timmy!
    â€œEmpress.” Matthew looked as bad as I felt—his face wan, his shoulders slumped with fatigue.
    â€œWhat’s happened?” Did he feel guilty because of how things had gone down?
    He gazed at me with those woebegone brown eyes. “Tredici nears.”
    â€œI don’t know what that is, sweetheart. Hey, aren’t you happy that we rescued Jack?”
    â€œI couldn’t see.” He hugged his arms around his torso, batting hisfists against his parka. “The Lovers!” The lowest hum came from him.
    I reached forward to pry his arms away. “We won the day. We lived through it.”
    He stared down at me. “The twins—inseparable. Never parted.”
    â€œI get that now.” In life—and in death—they were together. “Matthew, I need to know what they did to Jack.”
    â€œA path. You won’t like where it leads.”
    I’d gone months without decoder-ring talk. Now I was back in the thick of it. Though I was about to pass out, I asked, “What does that mean?”
    â€œI can’t steer, can’t change. Before there were waves or eddies; now stone. Our enemies laugh.”
    â€œHoney, you’re scaring me. And I’m so tired. Can we do this later?”
    He raised his palm. “Hold, please.”
    â€œAre you talking to someone else?” Matthew was the Arcana switchboard, a medium. “To . . . Aric? Is he in your eyes?” Watching me through Matthew?
    Now that Jack was safe, my traitorous mind turned to Death. I missed Aric—or, at least, the man I’d thought he was. I missed